Education Catalyst Pilot Programme 

Supporting education settings to implement and sustain evidence-informed violence prevention practice.  

Education, Children and Violence

A practice guidance report for school, college and alternative provision leaders on how to reduce children’s involvement in violence.

Education Policy, Children and Violence

Systems guidance for education policymakers to prevent children’s involvement in violence in England and Wales

Education Practice Insight Creator self-assessment

Assess your practice against our evidence-informed guidance using the Education Practice Insight Creator (EPIC)

Education settings play a critical role in preventing children’s involvement in violence, but many lack the resources, expertise, and structured support to implement evidence-based interventions effectively and sustain good practice.    

About the Catalyst Programme

The Education Catalyst Pilot Programme seeks to address this through funding 6 organisations over 2 years to support education settings to implement and sustain evidence-informed violence prevention practice.  

Each organisation is working with at least 10 settings to support the implementation of the YEF practice guidance recommendations. The programme aims to: 

• Learn about the barriers and enablers to implementing YEF practice guidance recommendations and gather learnings to inform the development of a model for scale up across England and Wales.   
• Improve our understanding of how existing local systems can facilitate implementation and sustain practice change.    

Education Change Lead, Jo Tedstone, explored the context behind the Catalyst programme in her YEF blog piece here: Bridging Evidence and Education Practice  | Youth Endowment Fund 

Who we are partnering with 

Since July 2025, we have partnered with six organisation representing a diverse portfolio of multi-academy trusts, local authorities, third-sector organisations and school improvement partners across England and Wales. Partners were selected for their ability to support sustained practice change in education settings and their commitment to reducing children’s involvement in violence. 

• Cardiff Council 
• Harris Federation 
• Learn Sheffield 
• Newport City Council 
• Oasis Community Learning 
• SOLVE – The Centre for Youth Violence and Conflict 

How the Catalyst programme works 

Assessing existing practice – The first step for all participating settings was to self-assess their violence prevention practice using the Education Practice Insight Creator (EPIC) self-assessment. Taking time to understand the extent to which current practice aligns with the evidence on what works to prevent violence is an important first step to understanding where their strengths and opportunities for development lie. Senior Change Manager, Ben Araya Larrain, shared his thoughts on this in a YEF blog piece here: Insights into Action: Using EPIC to plan for practice change  | Youth Endowment Fund 

Implementation delivery and learning – In collaboration with education settings, each Catalyst partner has identified priority areas for development and are delivering on their implementation plans. Each term the education change team at YEF facilitates Catalyst Connect Days which equip partners with the tools and knowledge needed to effectively lead and influence implementation. The days also provide opportunities to share learning and practice.  

Evaluation and sustainability planning – Working alongside education settings, partners will be supported to plan for sustainability and embed evidence-informed practice. An evaluation of the Catalyst programme will also be delivered on completion. 

Monitoring the embedding of practice – with sustainability at the core of the programme, YEF seeks to monitor whether practice change is embedded and sustained beyond the lifecycle of the Catalyst programme post July 2027.  

For continued updates on the Catalyst programme, as well as wider YEF education work, we recommend signing up to the YEF education newsletter.

Useful links